Publish or not ?

[Barry]

Hi All

I read Carl's comments on publishing his battleships today and got to wondering how many folks out there design things and then sit for ever wondering if they are good enough to publish even when everybody else says they are.

I would like to make a few pennies towards repairing my old computer but I look at other people's offerings and they are so much better than mine plus I do dumb subjects that I don't think would interest most people. I'm not daft enough to redo anything that Halinski, GPM, DN or Gremir have done already.

I am not getting any younger and my modeling time left is limited and turning a load of computerised shapes into a kit is more than a bit daunting and frankly not half the fun of building. Also my writing skills are none existent.

Then there is the problem of distribution I just can't see using the net the files are so damn big it would have to be on CD.

Do not worry I shall not even think of producing aircraft again.

Anyone else got any comments ??

I wrote this here because I did not want to clog up Carl's thread.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Yes Barry,
I agree with you on most of the things you've said...

Designing for release, is entirely different to designing for yourself. You have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to explain the process you went through to build the thing.

In some ways it's much more difficult to do that, because when you're just building for yourself you have little tricks and techniques and shortcuts and cheats that you've kind of invented as you go along. It's sometimes impossible to translate or even explain those.

So a release model has to be step by step perfect or people will come back to you complaining that it doesn't fit or that they don't understand it. In a way I understand what Carl means about it not being good enough for a release, even when we see his finished results as being near perfect.

At the end of the day, it depends why you're releasing it...... If it's on a commercial basis then it has to be perfect in assembly, because people are paying for it. If it's on a non commercial basis then it really doesn't matter if it's perfect or not.

As for your file size problems, there are a great many ways of compressing those down, without losing the quality.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[B-Manic]

There's only one way to find out Barry. Publish & solicit feedback, if there are problems that you can realistcally fix - fix them. I think it would be a shame not to give it a try. Good luck.

[rlwhitt]

It's much the same in my area of expertise, software. It's nothing to knock out a program to satisfy the "mother of invention" to get something done for yourself, it's altogether something else to release something that's appropriate for the "masses of mooses" as one of my marketing professors in college used to say. I've plied both sides of these waters and can feel your pain when deciding to "go commercial".. It isn't easy. :(

[Gil]

Barry,

This is a recurring theme that Carl is playing out. I think the point is that if you're going to publish models then it has to be done in a professional manner and run like a business. This is in complete opposition to the hobby sense of card modeling and puts you on the side of the suits. I have several designs sitting fallow due to the fact that I just don't want all the headaches that go with doing it right and know full well that a half hearted attempt will be doomed from the start.

This brings up something that may prove interesting. Does anyone know how Halinski, for instance, is organized? Headcount and job duties? Seeing how a successful card modeling company is run might prove interesting...,

+Gil

[shrike]

Instructions are always the hardest part. While you are designing, you're so in tune with the process that trying to explain it can be very difficult. What seems intuitive from the inside, from the designers point of view, can be hard to get across. I have a couple of models all ready to go save for the instructions.
I agree with most of the points raised, save one from Fozzie about people complaining. The worst part is the lack of feedback. I've sold a number of kits, but I have no idea what anyone thought of them. Nor even if anyone has ever built them at all.

With broadband connections, Paypal, cheap hosting and any number of shopping cart / download applications getting a kit "published" digitally is almost trivial.

I say go for it

[Phil]

You do not have to meet industry standards with your instructions, and I would not offer any "complaint department". I have several kits I purchased that did not come with instructions, and I also consider models that came with instructions in a language I do not read.

I truly believe that a picture of the finished model, from many angles of view, is the best set of instructions you can give.

I can recall countless plastic model instructions that left me pulling out my hair so frantically that I stopped using them as instructions but as references instead.

DO IT Barry! Quit wondering about the "what if's" and get 'er done.

[lepercan]

HI,
It's not just paper, either, folks.
Designed, built a prototype, and copyrighted a plastic model a few years ago (see avatar) then couldn't interest anyone in producing it. Still scratchbuilding, paper modeling, and designing though.
BTW, I, too, am no spring chicken.
Get in there!
Lep

[Barry]

You always were a positive bugger Phil got to admire that

rlw
Used to write software in the good old days before Microsoft and high level languages after that it was all down hill for me, too much guessing what all the bits in between were doing. It was alright doing things with engineers but the general public forget it.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Originally Posted by shrike

I agree with most of the points raised, save one from Fozzie about people complaining.

It depends whether you want to build models or run a customer services department....

That comes back to the point that Gil made where he said:
"I think the point is that if you're going to publish models then it has to be done in a professional manner and run like a business."

Personally I don't really have the time to do that right now.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)